My son is an Eagle Scout, and he just received a bizarre piece of mail from a supposed fellow Eagle Scout named Geary Titus. The letter explained that Mr. Titus had been asked to write a biographical statement for a national Eagle Scout Association book, and in return BSUSA gave him a disc containing the names and addresses of all Eagle Scouts.
He made use of this address list to send Eagle Scouts a book provided by "The Way to Happiness Foundation International". The book's cover featured Norman Rockwell's painting of Eagle Scouts and Boy Scouts, and was also entitled The Way to Happiness.
So what's odd about this? The author of the book is L. Ron Hubbard. That's right, the founder of Scientology. The book is a piece of Scientology propoganda, and the foundation that published it is a Scientology nonprofit group.
What's interesting about this is that the Boy Scouts have been having PR issues about their insistence on expelling atheists from the organization. They proudly proclaim their Christian roots, and use them as an excuse to exclude homosexuals in addition to atheists or anyone who won't agree to invoke God in the Boy Scout oath. Why are they selling their Eagle Scout mailing list to the Scientologists, who are proud to deny the existence of God and extol Scientology as a more "scientific" belief system? This seems antithetical to everything the Boy Scouts purportedly endorse.
Why hasn't this received any negative publicity?
Even more bizarrely, what is the goal of the Church of Scientology? Why in the world are they trying to recruit Eagle Scouts? I'm baffled, and so is my son.
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